IS IT GOOD TO BE THE KING?

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 4^th Friday in Ordinary Time is a question for all of us, “Is It Good To Be The King?”

Or Queen for that matter?

TODAY’S READINGS

The topic came up because in today’s 2 readings we have stories that come out of the life of two different kings.

The first reading is from the Book of Sirach. It’s a summary of praises for King David. For these first four weeks of Ordinary Time we’ve had readings from the 1^st and 2^nd Book of Samuel - all stories that lead up to the Great King David of Israel - who ruled for 40 years.[Cf. Sirach 47:2-11]

Today’s gospel features a story about King Herod the Tetrarch - one of the 4 King Herods in the Scriptures. This is the one who has John the Baptist beheaded.[Cf. Mark 6: 14-29]

MOVIE

In the movie History of the World, Part One, Mel Brooks is the king.  In some of the scenes - I can’t mention innuendos, etc. at Mass - he uses the line, “It’s Good To Be The King.” a few times.

He kisses and cheats and looks to the movie camera and says, “It’s good to be the king.”

We see him as king playing chess on this big tennis court size chess board - and as king he cheats - and takes extra moves - and once more he looks into the camera and says, “It’s good to be the king.”

I’ve heard people use that line down through the years - as a joke line.

The title of my homily is the question: “Is It Good To Be The King?”

ANOTHER QUESTION

Another question: does everyone sometime in their life wish they were someone else?

When we were teenagers did we want to have the other person’s look, clothes, money, car, friends, parents?  Did we wish we were so and so who got all A’s - and it was no effort?  Did we wish we were better athletes, had better skin, no acne?

As we got older, did we wish we were so and so when it came to having the better job? The better life choice? The home, kids, spouse, lawn, car, parties?

TO BE ONESELF

The wisdom teachers constantly tell people: “Be yourself!”

To try to be someone else - disaster.

Parents have told their kids that from the beginning of time.

I’ve been hearing these past two years the saying: “It is what it is.”

Does anyone apply that to themselves? I am who I am.

I always liked that as God’s answer to Moses at the Burning Bush. A voice tells Moses that he has to go back and face the Pharaoh and tell him to set the Israelites free - and Moses asks the Voice, “Wait a minute. Who are you?”  And the Voice says, “I Am Who Am.”

That’s basic person:  “I am who I am!”

I love the saying, “Be who you is, because if you be who you ain’t, then you ain’t who you is.”

I am who I am - wrinkles - sags - and body nags.

I am my story - so far. We can revise our history - even lie to ourselves - but I am who I am.

BACK TO BEING THE KING

King David was King David.

When I was stationed in New York City, way back when, I noticed in the paper a talk by a Rabbi - about King David.

What I still remember about the talk was this: the power of the pencil.

David got great reviews - even though he was a disaster as a father and a disaster as a husband.

His fans - revised his history - for centuries.  He was basically a smart guerrilla fighter - who took over most of the Israel territory.

He had 17 sons - who ended up as a cast of some horrible characters - one raping his sister - and many of them fighting each other.

David had Uriah killed - in order to get his wife: Bathsheba. I loved that her name was BathSheba - because he spotted while she was taking a bath - and wanted her. Did he say: “It’s good to be the king?”

No. Because that got him in big time trouble - and everyone knew what he did.

Did anyone want that much power? Probably.

Would we want to have that much power?  Would we want to be king, boss, someone other than ourselves? Maybe.

King Herod the Tetrarch - the Herod in today’s gospel - the one who had John the Baptist beheaded - dumped his first wife - the daughter of King Aretas - because he wanted to marry Herodias the wife of his half-brother Herod Philip. Later on - around 36 AD - his first wife’s father, Aretas wages war against Herod - but lost.

Does anyone want to be king, mayor, governor, president? Yes.  Does anyone want to be them now - and not be themselves? Maybe.

I love it that on the chess board the king is one of the weakest of pieces - compared to bishops and knights - and the Queen!  I think the game has that sense of humor to it.

I love it that checkers - seems to be more an American game - when any pawn can make it to be a king.

Do people who read People magazine want to be like the people in the magazine? Is that why it sells? I don’t know.

CONCLUSION

The title of my homily is, “Is It Good To Be The King?” 

However, in this homily, I want to ask the basic question: “Am I happy to be me?”

I can only be me. 

I can do life my way.  

I can do my life better ways. 

I can always be a better me - but I can only be me. 

Might as well make peace with reality and go - and grow - and flow from there.

IT'S NOT OVER 

TILL IT'S OVER 

Poem for Today - February 7, 2014

CLOSED PATH

I thought that my voyage had come to its end
at the last limit of my power,-

 that the path before me was closed,
that provisions were exhausted
and the time come to take shelter 

 in a silent obscurity.

But I find that thy will knows no end in me.
And when old words die out on the tongue,
new melodies break forth from the heart;
and where the old tracks are lost,
new country is revealed with its wonders. 

© Rabindranath Tagore

STILL  LOOKING  

Poem for Today - February 6, 2014

SANDPIPER

The roaring alongside he takes for granted,
and that every so often the world is bound to shake.
He runs, he runs to the south, finical, awkward,
in a state of controlled panic, a student of Blake.

The beach hisses like fat. On his left, a sheet
of interrupting water comes and goes
and glazes over his dark and brittle feet.
He runs, he runs straight through it, watching his toes.

- Watching, rather, the spaces of sand between them
where (no detail too small) the Atlantic drains
rapidly backwards and downwards. As he runs,
he stares at the dragging grains.

The world is a mist. And then the world is
minute and vast and clear. The tide
is higher or lower. He couldn't tell you which.
His beak is focused; he is preoccupied,

looking for something, something, something.
Poor bird, he is obsessed!
The millions of grains are black, white, tan, and gray
mixed with quartz grains, rose and amethyst. 

© Elizabeth Bishop

THE BIBLE HAS 

DIFFERENT LITERARY FORMS 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 4^th Tuesday in Ordinary Time  is, “The Bible Has Different Literary Forms.”

From time to time I think we need to be reminded of something very obvious: “The Bible Has Different Literary Forms.”

For those of you who come to Mass most every day - you hear all kinds of different readings from the Bible. I have discovered that one of the reasons people end up having problems and head scratching with the Bible at times -  is because they forget that there are different kinds of writing in the Bible. For example, they take something literally - when it would be more helpful -  if they took the same passage figuratively.  For example: do you take Genesis 5: 27 literally or figuratively, "In all, Methuselah lived for nine hundred and sixty-nine years; then he died."

LITERARY FORMS

We know the difference between a children’s story - like Jack in the Beanstalk  - and an Obituary. We know the difference between a recipe and the Adam and Eve stories in the Book of Genesis.

And speaking of Adam and Eve,  I assume people love the story of God creating Adam out of the clay of the earth and then breathing the breath of life into him. Then we hear the story of all the animals being brought to Adam and he gives a thumbs down to every one of them as a suitable partner. Well, God then puts Adam into a deep sleep and pulls out one of his ribs and builds a woman with that missing rib. [Cf. Genesis 2] And then we can hear the rabbis down through history telling those who are getting married - you are to be one - you are to embrace each other - rib to rib in love - and to be suitable partners.[1]

I assume that people know that every library has different sections: fiction and non-fiction, a children's section and an adult section - history, poetry, art books and cookbooks, etc. etc. etc.

I assume that people know that the word Bible - comes from the plural of the word - and means books. The Bible is a portable library with all kinds of books and all kinds of literature of a people.

WHAT WE MIGHT NOT KNOW

What we might not know is that this idea of various literary forms was not always such an out-loud and agreed upon principle by everyone in the Catholic Church.

These 4 years now, the Catholic Church is celebrating the 50^th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council: 1962-1965.

One of the key documents of the Second Vatican Council was The Constitution on Revelation - Dei Verbum.

The initial document met with big time criticism. 60 % wanted to send it back to be rewritten. 2/3 or 66 + was necessary for this - so John 23 intervened and said, “Recast the text.”

Chapter 3, # 12 of the finished constitution states loudly and clearly what I said above about “literary forms.” Those very words appear in the document.

I would recommend every person who comes to Mass - especially Daily Mass - that they read that document again - slowly and study it. If you have a computer you can find it on line for free - along with study guides etc.

TODAY’S FIRST READING

So we heard in today’s first reading one more story about David.

I hoped you noticed that it contained one of the world’s great literary forms: that of the 3 wishes.

I’m sure you heard that  literary form in various jokes and cute stories at different times in your life.  It always starts: “You have 3 wishes….”

Because of his sin of counting all the people - perhaps to line up more soldiers - and then depend less on God, David is given 3 wishes: you can have 3 years of famine, 3 months of being hunted down or 3 days of pestilence. David chooses # 3 and our text says, “The Lord then sent a pestilence over Israel from morning to the time appointed and 70,000 of the people died.”

Well, if we understand literary forms and what the Vatican II document on the Bible - Dei Verbum -   is saying, we wouldn’t get hot and bothered about God doing all this. Plagues and drought happen - and people blame God - just as some religious leaders said September 11 happened because of our sins. How many people still say to little kids or to each other, “God punished you!”

TODAY’S GOSPEL

Now today’s gospel has a slightly different type of history than the type of history we are hearing in the Books of Samuel. Yet both have a similar principle. There were basic spoken stories that were told among the community. Then for local situations details were adapted - stressed - or what have you. At some point they are written down - and at times revised. The message is more important than the details. So at times we don't get exactly what Jesus said or did. And that’s the beauty of comparing the 4 gospels. We see this when we hear different preachers come up with different stresses on the text we hear at any specific Mass.

CONCLUSION

It’s my experience that when people first hear this idea about literary forms - they get nervous. However, it's not as much as 50 years ago.  

It's my experience that it's much easier to be a fundamentalist. If the Bible says it - I believe it.

However, in the long run, once you get literary forms, you can have a much richer appreciation of the stories, parables, psalms or songs, different types of history, wisdom literature, and what have you in the Bible.

Moreover, we can avoid arguments by those who have a scientific bent with those who have a fundamentalist bent in interpreting scriptures.

Let me close with a quick story that happened to me.

In 1967 I got my first assignment.  I’m talking at breakfast with this old Redemptorist priest. He mentioned what he was taught - that the world was created in 4004 B.C..  And I said to him: "Impossible! They have rocks that are scientifically shown to be 4 or 5 billions years old. 

His response to my response:  “God created them old.”  

Surprise! He was taught what a Bishop James Ussher  taught - that the world was created Sunday October 23, 4004 B.C. and Adam and Eve were thrown out of the Garden on November 10, 4004 B.C.

Sometimes silence is golden. 


OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Notes:

[1] Hayim Nahman Bialik and Yehoshua Hana Ravnitzky, The Book of Legends, Sefer Ha-Aggadah, Legends from the Talmud and Midrash, Chapter 2, pages 19-22; Bill Moyers, Genesis, A Living Conversation, Chapter 1, "In God's Image," pp. 3-37; "Temptation", pp. 40-69; Naomi Rosenblatt and Joshua Horwitz, What Genesis Teaches Us About Our Spiritual Identity, Sexuality, and Personal Relationships, pp, 23-51.

DESIRING THE MOON

Poem for Today - February 5, 2014

ADAM’S COMPLAINT

Some people,
no matter what you give them,
still want the moon.

The bread,
the salt,
white meat and dark,
still hungry.

The marriage bed
and the cradle,
still empty arms.

You give them land,
their own earth under their feet,
still they take to the roads

And water: dig them the deepest well,
still it’s not deep enough
to drink the moon from. 

© Denise Levertov

NOW IS THE WINTER 

OF OUR DISCONTENT 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is the famous opening line from Shakespeare - from his play King Richard III, “Now is the winter of our discontent….”[1]

The second part of that quote is often left out, “Made glorious summer by this sun of York.”

I’m not sure about this, but I suspect grabbing just the words, “Now is the winter of our discontent” - fulfills a need - to put into words a reality that happens at times: “It’s winter. It’s been miserable at times. And it looks like there’s snow and more messy to come.”

At least that’s what the evening news we were watching last night reported. We don’t wish problems on others - but to be honest - I hope these 3 storms heading east  - head way north of  us.

Being stuck in traffic, in airports, in snow, in cold, or the cost of all this can lead to money problems, or there are family problems - that’s the stuff that can freeze us in a winter of discontent.

Last night these were the thoughts I had while going upstairs to write my homily after watching the evening news on TV. The snow in Chicago, then the weather maps showing  big bands of snow and cold heading east - followed by worse news coming  out of Syria. Children are starving - and over 100,000 people have died in this war going on now for 3 years.

TODAY’S FIRST READING

We’ve been going through some horrible stories about David in these readings from 2nd Samuel lately. Combining those readings with the stuff that happens in today’s Middle East tells me: so what else is new?

Discontent - wars, rumors of wars, it’s the history of our world.

Then today’s first reading continues with the story of Absalom - and today the dramatic description of his death. [Cf. 2 Samuel 18: 9-10, 14-b, 24-25a, 30-19:3]

So you think you have family problems? The scriptures hide nothing when it comes to David’s family problems. Absalom - his name - means: “Source of Peace” is creating big time problems - none of which is peaceful. Of all David’s 17 sons by various women, Absalom caused him the most agita - the most pain.

David - from what we read in these stories - was a disaster as a father. Absalom was a disaster as a son. He killed his older half brother Amnon because Amnon had raped his sister Tamar. The consequences of that killing lasted at least 5 years. Absalom was on the run - but became bolder and bolder - taunting and name calling all kinds of things about  his father - that David  was losing it. He got a coalition together and drove his dad out of Jerusalem barefoot  and empty handed. He took David’s harem - an ultimate insult. Vanity consumed Absalom - especially glorying in his great hair. Then today we hear in this reading  - how fleeing from a group of David’s soldiers - his hair got caught in some branches. Great story telling…. And Joab - one of David’s generals - immediately takes 3 pikes and stabs Absalom in the heart and kills him. [2]

Figuratively this drives one more sharp pike of pain into David’s heart - wishing that his army would have spared his son - in spite of all that they had don to protect. It took a lot of persuasive powers for Joab to convince David that he was worried more about Absalom than those who had stayed loyal to him.

CONCLUSION

Yes life at times can be a long winter - a long season of discontent.

The second part of that line from Shakespeare says: “Made glorious summer by this sun of York.” 

What to do? 

Be patient! Spring and summer will come.

In the meanwhile we can go to Jesus - the Son of Man, the Son of God, and do just what the 2 people in today’s gospel did. Like Jairus we can beg for help, like  the woman with the woman's problems, we can reach out simply to touch the edge of Jesus. 

In other words, let  Jesus  come completely into our  hearts and homes - into the winter of our discontent. Amen.

OOOOOOOOOO

NOTES:

[1] Richard III begins with Gloucester - as in Duke of Gloucester - saying "Now is the winter of our discontent...."  The Winter of our Discontent is also the name of the last  novel by John Steinbeck [1961]  I don't have time, but someone could write about the issue of discontent in this novel - Ethan Allen Hawley with his son Allen - who can be a liar and a cheat - along with Richard III - as well as David and Absalom.

[2] Hubert J. Richards, ABC of the Bible, “Absalom,” page  3. published by Geoffrey Chapman, London, Dublin, Melbourne, 1967, for the National Catechetical Centre, London; John L. McKenzie, Dictionary of the Bible, “Absalom,” page 6, MacMillan Publishing Company, New York. 

PRAYER:  

THE DOORWAY TO GOD

Poem for Today - February 4, 2014

PRAYING

It doesn't have to be
the blue iris, it could be
weeds in a vacant lot, or a few
small stones; just
pay attention, then patch

a few words together and don't try
to make them elaborate, this isn't
a contest but the doorway

into thanks, and a silence in which
another voice may speak.

(c) Mary Oliver

from her book, Thirst